Web Developer Application Form

Please complete this application form if you are interested in applying for a position. We look forward to hearing from you!

* Required

Basic Information

What's the code listed in the job posting that you read? It is typically of the form XXX-XXX and is listed within the body of the job posting.
*

If you didn't get to this application form through a job posting, or there was no code listed on the posting you read, type in the box below how you heard about this application form.

This is a required question

What's your first name?
*

This is a required question

What's your last name?
*

This is a required question

What's your email address?
*

This is a required question

Reasoning

If studies were to conclusively demonstrate that, in the day prior to committing murder, American murderers watched far more hours of violent television per person than U.S. citizens do on average, then one can conclude from this research that:
*

Watching violent TV makes Americans more violent.

Before committing murder, American murderers watched more total TV, on average, than non-murderer Americans.

An effective strategy to make a person less likely to commit murder would be to get them to cut back on violent television watching.

All of the above.

None of the above.

This is a required question

There are four closed doors in front of you. You know that each door has an animal painted on one side and a plant painted on the other side. The four doors have the following painted on the sides that you can see (one per door): a rose, a pine tree, a fox, and an eagle. You have been told that these doors satisfy the rule "if a door has a flower on its plant side, then it has a bird on its animal side". What is the smallest set of doors that you must check the hidden side of to determine conclusively whether this rule is true or false for these doors?
*

Just the door with the rose.

Just the door with the eagle.

Just the doors with the rose and the eagle.

Just the doors with the rose and the fox.

Just the doors with the rose, fox and eagle.

Just the doors with the pine tree and eagle.

All of the doors.

This is a required question

Your neighbor has two young, genetically unrelated cats named Boots and Mindy that you see often. They look quite similar, but based just on the markings on their fur, you have been able to correctly identify which is which 12 out of the last 14 times you have seen them. You know that Boots is blind, but the last time you saw Mindy she did not have eye problems. You see a cat on your neighbor's porch which, based on the markings on its fur, appears to you to be Mindy. On further inspection, you can tell that it is blind. It is most rational to conclude that:
*

A. The cat is most likely Mindy.

B. The cat is most likely Boots.

C. The cat is most likely neither Boots nor Mindy, but rather, a stray cat or a cat belonging to someone else.

D. The cat is equally likely to be Mindy or Boots.

There is no reasonable way to decide between A, B, C or D.

This is a required question

Simone is 30 years of age, unmarried, well-spoken, and very bright. While a student (majoring in philosophy) she was concerned with issues of social justice and prejudice, and also participated in anti-war demonstrations. Which of the following statements is most likely to be true?
*

A. Simone is a baker.

B. Simone is a baker and is active in the feminism movement.

C. Simone is a baker and is not active in the feminism movement.

D. Simone is a baker and an olympic silver medalist.

There is no good way to decide whether A, B, C or D is the most likely.

This is a required question

Suppose that you have an enormous pineapple that is 99% water (by weight). The pineapple weighs 100 pounds. If the water content of the pineapple evaporates until it is 98% water (by weight), then approximately how much does the pineapple now weigh?
*

99 pounds

96 pounds

95 pounds

60 pounds

50 pounds

49 pounds

This is a required question

Suppose that you are at a casino playing roulette. The strategy you are using is to, before each bet, flip a coin to determine whether to place your bet on red or on black (which, according to the rules of the game, should each have a 50% chance of occurring). Suppose that you lose fifty five times in a row (i.e. for fifty five consecutive plays, after you've placed your bet on black the ball then lands on red, and after you've placed your bet on red the ball then lands on black). From this experience, it is most rational to conclude that:
*

Using a coin toss to determine whether to bet on red or black is in general a very bad strategy for playing roulette

The game is somehow rigged against you and the casino or its employees are cheating you

You are very likely to win on your next bet if you continue this coin flip based strategy

The roulette game is broken, but there is no reason to assume that it was broken intentionally

You were merely very unlucky

One cannot reasonably conclude which of the above options is more likely

This is a required question

Suppose that in a group of people you find that X percent of people in the group have heights that are greater than the average (that is, the mean) height in that group. Which of the following is a true statement about X?
*

X can be any percentage.

X cannot be bigger than 25%.

X can be bigger than 25% but cannot be bigger than 50%.

X can be bigger than 50% but cannot be as high as 99.9%.

X can be bigger than 99.9% but cannot be equal to 100%.

This is a required question

Programming

Suppose that you're writing a function that will process an array of floating point numbers. For each array passed to your function, it should compute as output the largest sum of CONSECUTIVE numbers occurring anywhere in that array. For instance, if the function is given the input [-1.0, 3.1, -2.4, 7.0, -2.0, 1.0] it should produce as output 7.7, which is the largest consecutive sum (3.1 + -2.4 + 7.0). It does not produce 11.1 which is 3.1 + 7.0 + 1.0 because those three numbers aren't next to each other in the array. In the box below, describe (in words) an algorithm that will efficiently solve this problem.
*

This is a required question

What's something (programming or computer science related) that you disagree with the vast majority of programmers about? What makes you convinced that you're correct?
*

In the box below, write a simple function in Ruby or Python that takes a text string as input and returns a data structure that contains each character that appears in the string more than one time, and the number of total times that each such character appears. Assume that this function is going to be called by code written by other programmers. Write this code exactly as you would write it if this were a real work assignment.
*

Note: You may want to do the actual writing in a code editor or IDE and then just paste the result into the box below.

This is a required question

Education

What's your highest level of formal education?
*

This is a required question

If you ever attended college, what was the college or university's name?

Leave this blank if you have not attended a college.

This is a required question

What was/is your college major?

Leave this blank if you have not attended a college.

This is a required question

What was your college grade point average (GPA)?

If this question does not apply to you, just write "N/A". If you cannot get your GPA for some reason, write "cannot get".

This is a required question

If you ever began a masters or PhD, what was/is the name of the school?

Leave this blank if you have not attended a masters or PhD program. If you have started both a masters and PhD, just list whichever is most relevant.

This is a required question

What was/is your area of study in your masters or PhD?

If you have more than one such degree, list the one most relevant to this job. Leave this blank if you have not attended a masters or PhD program.

This is a required question

Other

What made you decide to look at this job posting and fill out this application form? What made it catch your eye?